Punjana tea wins awards

PUNJANA BAGS TOP ACCOLADELocal Company Wins Top 3-Star Award for NI’s Favourite Tea

Belfast based Thompson’s Family Teas, has won the maximum three stars for its hero brand, Punjana, Northern Ireland’s best-selling tea, at the prestigious UK Great Taste Awards 2016. Three stars is the highest achievement a product can win and is normally reserved for exclusive and specialised products rather than an affordable everyday product.

In this year alone, the family-owned business amassed a record breaking total of 23 Star Awards. Another blend, Thompson’s Irish Breakfast tea bags also achieved top honours with the maximum 3 Stars.

Punjana tea bags now stand alone in their category – winning more Great Taste Awards than any other blended teabag in the UK and ROI over the past 10 years.

Cousins, Ross and David Thompson, who blend all of their company’s teas, have long held a passion for blending. Ross comments: “I feel that with this latest endorsement, we have come one giant step closer to our ultimate goal of blending the perfect everyday cuppa.”

The recently aired television advert, which features Ross and David on their tea journey, finishes with the line, “Punjana is everyday tea, but when the Thompson’s make it, everyday is special.” This award comes as a timely endorsement to their lofty claim.

The Thompson’s recent development into the luxury loose tea sector, serving the growing demand for special tea drinking occasions, was rewarded with a raft of awards for their exotic infusions, including Hedgerow Heaven, Scent of a Rose and Rhubarb Spritzer.

The Great Taste Awards are commonly referred to as the ‘Oscars’ of the food and drink world and are run annually by the Guild of Fine Foods in England. Food and drink entries are blind tasted by up to 40 judges in six different locations across the UK with less than 2% of all entries making it to the hallowed 3 Star status.

All Thompson’s Family Teas are imported into their state-of-the-art blending and packing facility in Belfast, before being distributed to outlets across the province and beyond to markets stretching from the United States to Australia.

David Thompson concludes: “Our factory has achieved BRC Grade A accreditation and is equipped with some of the world’s most advanced tea packaging and blending machinery, indeed our factory now produces tea for over a third of the country’s tea drinkers, equating to more than 1 million tea bags every day, in Northern Ireland alone.”